a. book title and author in the introductory paragraph
b. a thesis statement that encompasses the main idea of your essay which should be how the selected chapter is reflected in your novel
c. brief summary of the section to be discussed (no more than a paragraph)--just enough to get a sense of the context
d. analysis of the section through the lens of one of the chapters from How to Read Literature Like a Professor
e. a quotation you think is significant and your explanation of how the quote reflects the selected chapter
f. each essay should be approximately three hundred words
g. Copy and paste the essay! Do not upload a document!
#1 [It’s Never Just Heart Disease…]
Heart attacks are part of human nature. We never know when someone will overcome heart attacks because it is a sudden effect. With the lost of Susie Salmon, her father goes through heart attack. A character going experiencing heart attack in a novel is rare. Alice Sebold decides to give Jack a heart attack during her novel The Lovely Bones.
Through the novel Jack Salmon develops a weak heart but faints during chapter eighteen from a heart attack; ending up in the hospital. Jacks illness is able to bring the family together. During chapter nineteen, Abigail flies back to Pennsylvania. Though she is not welcomed from Buck, the youngest son. She is able to overcome the coldness to create a new relationship with her husband and kids.
A heart attack can represent a metaphor according to Foster because of “loneliness, bad love, and cruelty” (Foster 209). Jacks youngest daughter passing away, his wife leaving the family, and his kids living their own social life he feels lonely. His loneliness developing creates Jack to have a weak heart. With the noticeable voice yelling at Jack “Let go. Let go. Let go,” Jack knew that even if his family were all busy living their lives he was not lonely. Susie’s soul would always be with him to keep him company (Sebold 257). His wife is also able to change her thoughts about Jack and spends nights taking care of him.
After the sudden heart attack, we are able to notice that illness is able to bring a family together
Comment
Hi Sylvia! Did you know they're making a movie from this book? Sorry, that was pretty random. Anyways, I'll go back to commenting on your essay now. I like that your essay is really succinct to the point. I especially like the analysis part. Even without reading the book, I could see how you came to the conclusion of the heart attack symbolizing negative societal aspects. But maybe you could have summarized a bit more detailedly in the previous paragraph. I think that would probably a bit more detailed summary would reinforce the analysis too. Other than that, the flow of the essay goes together and there aren't any major grammatical errors. But one thing, make sure you put the quotation marks on the whole part that you took the quotation from. It seems like you forgot to put the quotation mark when you took a excerpt from The Lovely Bones. And don't forget to underline the title of the book too! Anyways, the book you wrote about sounds like a pretty interesting book. I'll read the book sometime before the movie comes out, hopefully.
Sally Park
#2 [Every Trip is a Quest] (Except Win It's Not)
While reading any type of literature, there is always a character that goes on a journey, but not just to enjoy their time off. There are always five factors while on a trip: quester, place to go, reason, trails, and the true reason. During The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold uses journey to represent development of one character.
Starting from chapter four, Abigail started to isolate herself from the family by ignoring her family when they worrying about the lost of Susie; however Abigail cannot face her death. Not being able to handle the family’s hemisphere, she decides to leave the family finding a way to escape from her grief. She move in to her father’s cottage in New Hampshire and then travels to California to start a new life. Another reason for her leaving town is because of the affair she had with Len, therefore felling guilty.
Foster states "the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge" (Foster 3). While traveling Abigail finds the true meaning of her life/ family during her journey. She figures out the important roles she plays in the family. "My mother could not bring herself to say 'I love you'" (Sebold 281). After her quest, she realized that she had still loved Jack, and he had loved her though she had betrayed the family. The readers can notice that Abigail had changed with how she had acted to Jack.
The audience is able to understand that Abigail’s plane ride identifies her forgiving Jack and still loving him.
#3 […So Does Season]
Sometimes while reading a novel, the reader may not notice that seasons can symbolize the mood of the book or be important. Alice Sebold chooses winter as the setting during the first ten chapters in The Lovely Bones and concludes the novel with winter as well.
During the few chapters of The Lovely Bones, Susie Salmon experiences rape and gets murdered by one of her neighbors while returning home on a snowy day at the age of thirteen. George Harvey (the neighbor) invites Susie to take a look at “something” that he had build near the cornfield. After being murdered her body gets cut into different pieces and is thrown away, except her arm. Thankfully her arm is found by her dog, which helps her father finding who the criminal is. After being murder Susie goes to heaven and watches what happens to the society that she was once existed in.
If we connect the seasons with our stage of life, spring would represent our youth while summer is adulthood, autumn as mid-age, and winter as the stage of death. During the afternoon of Susie’s death, “it was snowing … dark out because the days where shorter in winter” (Sebold 6). The night being shorten, in the cornfield cold and dark. Mr. Harvey set Susie as his victim because of the reason Foster explains: “resentment and death” (Foster 178). Winter can be represented as a cliché because it is mentioned during majority of the novel. The mood of the novel is set with Sebold starting and ending the novel with winter.
Not only is winter the period when Susie is murdered, but also when Mr. Harvey dies.
#4 [It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow] (It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow)
Reading different novels, I have noticed something in common. There is always rain or snow. For an example, Dracula by Bram Stocker rain is a cliché; same as The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. When the important occur, the weather is never sunny. Snow is not just a white precipitation falling from the sky. There are two different ways a reader can interoperate snow in literature; positively or negatively. First it can by symbolized as death, inhuman, and coldness. On the other hand, it is clean, pure, joyful, and beautiful images. Alice Sebold uses snow as a positive way in The Lovely Bones.
Susie’s death occurs on a snowy day, but that's not it. Crimes are never allowed to have a successful life. Though they try to run away they are always caught or killed. This applies the Mr. Harvey. At first he escapes from the society he was part of. While trying to commit another crime, “icicle fell. The heavy coldness of it throw him off balance…” (Sebold 327).
Through the lens of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, “snow is … suffocating” (Foster, 80). This applies to how Harvey dies. He does not die peacefully, dead by Susie’s favorite weapon; “‘I [she] always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away’” (Sebold 125). Icicles only form when there is snow. Therefore winter and snow is dangerous. Not only does Harvey pass away being stab my icicles, his dead body is also covered with snow.
In conclusion snow brings plays a role of creating death, indicates inhuman, abstract thought, and nothingness.
[Geography matters]
Within a novel, geography is important because it is part of the setting. The Lovely Bones starts with a young girl passing a cornfield and going under a pit. Why did Alice Sebold decide to have Susie pass a cornfield? Why not a river? Geography can be like history. The readers have to image an image, like history you have to image a map. To help the audience figure out what might happen, authors tend to bring their characters to a different area.
During chapter one and two Susie is cold and decides to take a short cut after school. In a hurry to go home, she cuts through the cornfield near her house. During the novel the cornfield is a mysterious place. Later on the novel Father get injured. Well, the first two chapters Susie meet her neighbor in the cornfield and get murdered.
Corns are tall; the cornfield helps Harvey commit his crime because nobody can see who is in the field. Since the cornfield is part of the wild, it is dangerous and leads to confusion. However Susie was not murdered in the cornfield, she was actually murdered “we were both in a hole” (Sebold 9). Since it is built deep under ground, low places represents darkness and death. Like Foster’s idea “geography can also, and frequently does, play quite a specific plot role in a literary work” (Foster 169). With the force of geographic, Alice Sebold is able to develop the introduction of the novel with setting a mysterious dark hole as the location were Susie is raped and killed.
A place or space can bring us wonder about what will happen at the area.
Comments
#1
Yo Sun Young!
I stepped by because your book sounds interesting. I was not able write an essay on this topic so I decided to take some time reading this section. First, the intro I am able to figure out what your taking about because of the clear thesis. Also with the short summary I could get a picture about the section you read. Overall, I think you essay was good. It really brought my attention to read your essay with enough details. Your sentence and paragraphs were fluent. You were able to help understand the ideas. It made the audience to actually read the novel. I am going to be reading it for sure :D
-Sylvia
Essay #4 - Is That a Symbol
#2
Hey Alena :)
I am reading one of your essay since I read the same novel. First it would be helpful if you labeled the chapters from HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR. However, I was able to get the main point of your essay since the thesis was clear; about symbolizing. I like how you actually mentioned that Susie was narrating up in heaven, I forgot to include that in mine. Since I read the novel I would understand the summary section but then I think it would of been better summarizing the charm and Grandma Lynn. Either that, I think it would of been less complicating if you talked just about the mother. Other than that I the sentence fluency was clear but the paragraphs were a bit complicating. Enter on each paragraphs so the readers can understand the essay better. Overall, I think you did a nice job. I can tell you put effort on your work. :D
-Sylvia
Essay #2
The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold
Approved
Each essay should include the following:
a. book title and author in the introductory paragraph
b. a thesis statement that encompasses the main idea of your essay which should be how the selected chapter is reflected in your novel
c. brief summary of the section to be discussed (no more than a paragraph)--just enough to get a sense of the context
d. analysis of the section through the lens of one of the chapters from How to Read Literature Like a Professor
e. a quotation you think is significant and your explanation of how the quote reflects the selected chapter
f. each essay should be approximately three hundred words
g. Copy and paste the essay! Do not upload a document!
#1 [It’s Never Just Heart Disease…]
Heart attacks are part of human nature. We never know when someone will overcome heart attacks because it is a sudden effect. With the lost of Susie Salmon, her father goes through heart attack. A character going experiencing heart attack in a novel is rare. Alice Sebold decides to give Jack a heart attack during her novel The Lovely Bones.
Through the novel Jack Salmon develops a weak heart but faints during chapter eighteen from a heart attack; ending up in the hospital. Jacks illness is able to bring the family together. During chapter nineteen, Abigail flies back to Pennsylvania. Though she is not welcomed from Buck, the youngest son. She is able to overcome the coldness to create a new relationship with her husband and kids.
A heart attack can represent a metaphor according to Foster because of “loneliness, bad love, and cruelty” (Foster 209). Jacks youngest daughter passing away, his wife leaving the family, and his kids living their own social life he feels lonely. His loneliness developing creates Jack to have a weak heart. With the noticeable voice yelling at Jack “Let go. Let go. Let go,” Jack knew that even if his family were all busy living their lives he was not lonely. Susie’s soul would always be with him to keep him company (Sebold 257). His wife is also able to change her thoughts about Jack and spends nights taking care of him.
After the sudden heart attack, we are able to notice that illness is able to bring a family together
Comment
Hi Sylvia! Did you know they're making a movie from this book? Sorry, that was pretty random. Anyways, I'll go back to commenting on your essay now. I like that your essay is really succinct to the point. I especially like the analysis part. Even without reading the book, I could see how you came to the conclusion of the heart attack symbolizing negative societal aspects. But maybe you could have summarized a bit more detailedly in the previous paragraph. I think that would probably a bit more detailed summary would reinforce the analysis too. Other than that, the flow of the essay goes together and there aren't any major grammatical errors. But one thing, make sure you put the quotation marks on the whole part that you took the quotation from. It seems like you forgot to put the quotation mark when you took a excerpt from The Lovely Bones. And don't forget to underline the title of the book too! Anyways, the book you wrote about sounds like a pretty interesting book. I'll read the book sometime before the movie comes out, hopefully.
Sally Park
#2 [Every Trip is a Quest] (Except Win It's Not)
While reading any type of literature, there is always a character that goes on a journey, but not just to enjoy their time off. There are always five factors while on a trip: quester, place to go, reason, trails, and the true reason. During The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold uses journey to represent development of one character.
Starting from chapter four, Abigail started to isolate herself from the family by ignoring her family when they worrying about the lost of Susie; however Abigail cannot face her death. Not being able to handle the family’s hemisphere, she decides to leave the family finding a way to escape from her grief. She move in to her father’s cottage in New Hampshire and then travels to California to start a new life. Another reason for her leaving town is because of the affair she had with Len, therefore felling guilty.
Foster states "the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge" (Foster 3). While traveling Abigail finds the true meaning of her life/ family during her journey. She figures out the important roles she plays in the family. "My mother could not bring herself to say 'I love you'" (Sebold 281). After her quest, she realized that she had still loved Jack, and he had loved her though she had betrayed the family. The readers can notice that Abigail had changed with how she had acted to Jack.
The audience is able to understand that Abigail’s plane ride identifies her forgiving Jack and still loving him.
#3 […So Does Season]
Sometimes while reading a novel, the reader may not notice that seasons can symbolize the mood of the book or be important. Alice Sebold chooses winter as the setting during the first ten chapters in The Lovely Bones and concludes the novel with winter as well.
During the few chapters of The Lovely Bones, Susie Salmon experiences rape and gets murdered by one of her neighbors while returning home on a snowy day at the age of thirteen. George Harvey (the neighbor) invites Susie to take a look at “something” that he had build near the cornfield. After being murdered her body gets cut into different pieces and is thrown away, except her arm. Thankfully her arm is found by her dog, which helps her father finding who the criminal is. After being murder Susie goes to heaven and watches what happens to the society that she was once existed in.
If we connect the seasons with our stage of life, spring would represent our youth while summer is adulthood, autumn as mid-age, and winter as the stage of death. During the afternoon of Susie’s death, “it was snowing … dark out because the days where shorter in winter” (Sebold 6). The night being shorten, in the cornfield cold and dark. Mr. Harvey set Susie as his victim because of the reason Foster explains: “resentment and death” (Foster 178). Winter can be represented as a cliché because it is mentioned during majority of the novel. The mood of the novel is set with Sebold starting and ending the novel with winter.
Not only is winter the period when Susie is murdered, but also when Mr. Harvey dies.
#4 [It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow] (It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow)
Reading different novels, I have noticed something in common. There is always rain or snow. For an example, Dracula by Bram Stocker rain is a cliché; same as The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. When the important occur, the weather is never sunny. Snow is not just a white precipitation falling from the sky. There are two different ways a reader can interoperate snow in literature; positively or negatively. First it can by symbolized as death, inhuman, and coldness. On the other hand, it is clean, pure, joyful, and beautiful images. Alice Sebold uses snow as a positive way in The Lovely Bones.
Susie’s death occurs on a snowy day, but that's not it. Crimes are never allowed to have a successful life. Though they try to run away they are always caught or killed. This applies the Mr. Harvey. At first he escapes from the society he was part of. While trying to commit another crime, “icicle fell. The heavy coldness of it throw him off balance…” (Sebold 327).
Through the lens of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, “snow is … suffocating” (Foster, 80). This applies to how Harvey dies. He does not die peacefully, dead by Susie’s favorite weapon; “‘I [she] always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away’” (Sebold 125). Icicles only form when there is snow. Therefore winter and snow is dangerous. Not only does Harvey pass away being stab my icicles, his dead body is also covered with snow.
In conclusion snow brings plays a role of creating death, indicates inhuman, abstract thought, and nothingness.
[Geography matters]
Within a novel, geography is important because it is part of the setting. The Lovely Bones starts with a young girl passing a cornfield and going under a pit. Why did Alice Sebold decide to have Susie pass a cornfield? Why not a river? Geography can be like history. The readers have to image an image, like history you have to image a map. To help the audience figure out what might happen, authors tend to bring their characters to a different area.
During chapter one and two Susie is cold and decides to take a short cut after school. In a hurry to go home, she cuts through the cornfield near her house. During the novel the cornfield is a mysterious place. Later on the novel Father get injured. Well, the first two chapters Susie meet her neighbor in the cornfield and get murdered.
Corns are tall; the cornfield helps Harvey commit his crime because nobody can see who is in the field. Since the cornfield is part of the wild, it is dangerous and leads to confusion. However Susie was not murdered in the cornfield, she was actually murdered “we were both in a hole” (Sebold 9). Since it is built deep under ground, low places represents darkness and death. Like Foster’s idea “geography can also, and frequently does, play quite a specific plot role in a literary work” (Foster 169). With the force of geographic, Alice Sebold is able to develop the introduction of the novel with setting a mysterious dark hole as the location were Susie is raped and killed.
A place or space can bring us wonder about what will happen at the area.
Comments
#1
Yo Sun Young!I stepped by because your book sounds interesting. I was not able write an essay on this topic so I decided to take some time reading this section. First, the intro I am able to figure out what your taking about because of the clear thesis. Also with the short summary I could get a picture about the section you read. Overall, I think you essay was good. It really brought my attention to read your essay with enough details. Your sentence and paragraphs were fluent. You were able to help understand the ideas. It made the audience to actually read the novel. I am going to be reading it for sure :D
-Sylvia
Essay #4 - Is That a Symbol
#2
Hey Alena :)I am reading one of your essay since I read the same novel. First it would be helpful if you labeled the chapters from HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR. However, I was able to get the main point of your essay since the thesis was clear; about symbolizing. I like how you actually mentioned that Susie was narrating up in heaven, I forgot to include that in mine. Since I read the novel I would understand the summary section but then I think it would of been better summarizing the charm and Grandma Lynn. Either that, I think it would of been less complicating if you talked just about the mother. Other than that I the sentence fluency was clear but the paragraphs were a bit complicating. Enter on each paragraphs so the readers can understand the essay better. Overall, I think you did a nice job. I can tell you put effort on your work. :D
-Sylvia
Essay #2